The Tankless Hot Water Heater operates on the principle that it heats water on demand as it is called for. Differing from traditional hot water heaters that require a storage tank, the tankless type requires no storage tank and so you experience no standby heat energy loss. Standby heat loss is the heat lost and energy wasted by heating water and then storing it in a tank.

This is a characteristic of traditional hot water heaters. Avoiding standby heat loss is the key to how tankless hot water heaters manage to be energy efficient.

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Whether a tankless water heater is point-of-use or a whole-house unit, they work the same basic way. Cold water enters the unit and is heated by a heating element which is turned on by a flow activated switch. The heat exchanger can be electric resistance heating coils or a gas fired burner using natural gas or propane.

There are three variables that have to be considered in sizing the unit.

The volume of water the unit is required to heat, measured as flow rate in gallons per minute (GPM)

The temperature of the cold water entering the unit

The desired temperature of the hot water exiting the unit.

Those three factors are what determine the type, size and possibly even the number of tankless water heaters you need.

Types of Tankless Hot Water Heater

There are two basic types of tankless heaters, Point of Use and Whole House.

Point of Use Tankless

It creates 170 degree F hot water instantly and you can pour water that is ready to make tea or coffee or soup right out of the faucet. The point of use tankless hotwater heater is small enough to fit underneath a sink cabinet or in a small closet. They are normally dedicated use heaters which simply means that one unit serves one faucet. Point of use tankless hot water is less expensive than whole house water heating.

Whole House Tankless

Whole house tankless hot water can be provided with higher flow capacity and can handle demand for more than one fixture at a time. For example they normally easily supply two shower fixtures at one time or a dishwasher, kitchen sink and a bathroom hot water faucet. Some shower heads can require as much as six times more water than a bathroom faucet.

The number and size of whole house tankless water heaters you need will be largely determined by flow rate. That is determined by the number and types of fixtures you would potentially operate all at the same time. You may find that you will need more than one whole house tankless hot water heater hooked up in parallel to meet your hot water demands.

Once you have made the changeover, you will be very pleasantly surprised at your energy costs.

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